Change

I met a lady at a coffee shop recently while working on a presentation for Finland. She shared that her 3 kids work in different industries (business, urban planning, and medical support), all of them work remotely in varying degrees: two have office space that they use… sometimes, and the other has a home office and also uses coffee shops when appropriate. The lady herself had a season of working from home, but openly admitted that the discipline to stay focused and not jump into house keeping tasks became a loosing battle, so she moved back into the formal office setting.

This ‘moving back to the office’ is not about failure or defeat, it’s more about knowing yourself, the environments in which you thrive, and your limits.

Over the past few weeks I have been considering what I like about remote work, and what elements I’m not crazy about. I’ve also been chatting to others, researching, and brainstorming with peers to learn about their experiences. The short and sweet of it? Remote workers like the ability to be flexible and have a choice about how, when, and where the work gets done. As well, the idea of intentionality regarding work results in great productivity, and calls for much creativity in overcoming possible barriers.

The flip side? Things like poor communication, inadequate technology, and undependable Internet access can create great frustration for both workers, and employers. This in addition to the on-going struggle to balance work and personal space (thus the need for good self-discipline!). One final aspect that many individuals working remotely battle with is a sense of isolation and lonelyness.

Like any work situation, you take the good with the not so good…the question lies in whether or not you can overcome, or accept, the aspects that are less than ideal. For me, and for most remote workers that I have engaged with, the pros are great enough that the commitment to finding a way to make remote work, work…is worth the effort.

The number of people working remotely (in varying formats) is growing; next blog join me as we take a closer look at how both the workers and the employers are creating some really successful outcomes.

In the meantime, check out this interview conducted with a remote worker regarding his experiences. And yes, it does beg the question… “What are the key differences between remote working and nomadic working?” Nathan describes the first as being in a position of having an office (whether a home, shared, or separate office space) and the second being in a state of having no constant. What are the advantages, draw backs, and risks of each? A question to be answered by a nomadic worker?

I have become more than simply curious about all that it means to work remotely. In fact, it has become one of those topics that seem to be ‘popping up’ in various conversation these days. I know it is not a totally new concept, but I do believe it is going to continue to impact the way we design work across all industries. In a recent conversation with my son, he described how his attention is being drawn to how we design customer experiences (check him out at http://nathansawatzky.com). To me, this is the flip side of the same coin; are we considering how we design work in light of how we design the customer’s experience? It is also interesting to note that Nathan works remotely from various countries around the world.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. Suffice to say, my focus for the next few months will be on investigating how different organizations – large and small, local and global – creatively design jobs that intentionally build in opportunities for employees to work remotely…and considering how this then informs the customer experience.Here is an interesting article published by the New York Times on the topic…Out of the Office: More People are Working Remotely, Survey Finds.

Over the course of the summer I will be traveling and look forward to doing some work remotely, AND connecting with others who also have the opportunity to enjoy such freedom.

Any book recommendations, research, organizational examples are greatly appreciated! I’m starting off by reading Remote: Office Not Required by Fried and Hansson. Hope you join me for this wide open (by design) journey.